Reaching For Stars By Way Of Moon, Mars

May 23, 1986|By Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON — A presidential commission on space policy unveiled a vision of the future Thursday that foretells U.S. exploration and colonization of the inner solar system ranging from passenger trips in low Earth orbit to mining on the moon, Mars and accessible asteroids.

It also proposes multibillion-dollar budget increases to pay for the projects.

Touting ''a bold civilian space program for 21st century America,'' the 15-member commission urged President Reagan and Congress to open the way to a policy on science and enterprise in space that could put human outposts on the moon by 2005 and on Mars by 2015.

In the wake of the Jan. 28 Challenger explosion and three other rocket failures in a year, the report is sure to influence a Cabinet-level debate raging within the administration and Congress over how to proceed with the nation's beleaguered space program.

''Pioneering the Space Frontier,'' a glossy 211-page illustrated report that reads like science fiction, is a serious look 50 years into the future. It was commissioned by Congress last year and written by aerospace experts who included astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon, and Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, the first person to fly faster than sound.

The report is dedicated to the seven astronauts killed aboard Challenger.

The commission calls on the United States ''to lead the exploration and development of the space frontier, advancing science, technology and enterprise, and building institutions and systems that make accessible vast new resources and support human settlements beyond Earth orbit, from the highlands of the moon to the plains of Mars.''

In an era of budget cutbacks and fiscal restraint, the commission proposes steady increases in the budget of NASA above its current $7.5 billion. A chart with the report shows the cost of the proposed program would be about $25 billion in 2005 and nearly $35 billion by 2015 in constant 1986 dollars.

That would represent less than half the amount, when measured as a percentage of the gross national product, that the nation spent on space projects during the peak years of the Apollo program, the report said. It argued that such sums are ''reasonable'' if the nation is to maintain pre- eminence in space into the next century.

The commission proposes ''a sustained step-by-step program to open the inner solar system for exploration, basic and applied research, resource development and human operations.''

To do that, it recommends exploring, prospecting and settling the inner solar system. This envisions mining the resources of space to aid in its exploration by first using robotic processing to ''live off the land'' rather than depend on supplies from Earth.